STAVE 4 - Christmas Yet to Come/Emphasis on The Beetling Shop Flashcards
On a surface level, it seems as though the thieves are completely immoral, choosing to steal from a dead man - this is ideally an accurate reflection of the rich’s views on the poor. However,
Dickens is actually underlining that these people were nit inherently immoral. In fact that were forced to steal to be able to survive, and even then they live in absolute poverty, with the almost ridiculous asyndetic description of Joe’s Beetling shop enhancing; the poor are bound to turn to crime if they have no other choice.
Victorian ideas about legacy:
with the underlying fear of mortality and an increasing obsession within upper class men for leaving behind a powerful legacy of wealth, and a family and an impact, Dickens employs this vignette to evoke fear from the readers and highlight the futility of material wealth -> you can leave behind a legacy of kindness, a community who remembers you for the good you’ve done, or be forgotten, along with all of your material wealth -> Scrooge died alone proving that material wealth is transcient, whereas the impact you leave on the people around you, the kindness you give, is eternal, in the same way that Scrooge remembers Fezziwig’s kindness to him.
